LIBER QUINTUS. 619 



attentissima circa unam rem sollicitudo, ejusque perpetua exer- 

 citatio, quas sui conservandi necessitas hujusmodi animantibus 

 imponit. Cicero enim vere admodum ; Usus uni rei deditus, et 

 naturam et artem scepe vincit. 1 Quare si praedicetur de homi- 

 nibus, 



Labor omnia vincit 

 Improbus, et duris urgens in rebus egestas ; 8 



etiam de brutis similiter quaeritur, 



Quis expedivit psittaco suum Xa?/> ? 3 



Corvo quis auctor fuit, ut magna siccitate lapillos immitteret 

 arbori cavae, ubi aquam forte conspexerit, ut surgentem laticem 

 rostro posset attingere? Quis viam monstravit apibus, qui 4 

 per aerem, tanquam vastum mare, agros floridos, licet multum 

 ab alvearibus dissitos, solent petere, et favos suos denuo repe- 

 tere ? 5 Quis forniicam docuit, ut grana in colliculo suo repo- 

 nenda circumroderet prius, ne reposita germinarent et spem 

 suam illuderent ? 6 Quod si in versu illo Virgiliano quis notet 

 verbum illud Extundere, quod difficultatem rei, et verbum illud 

 Paulatim, quod tarditatem innuit, redibimus unde profecti 

 sumus, ad -ZEgyptiorum illos Deos ; cum hactenus homines 

 modice rationis facultate, neutiquam vero officio artis, usi sint 

 ad inventa detegenda. 



Secundo, hoc ipsum quod asserimus (si advertatur paulo 



1 " Assiduus usus uni rei deditus et ingenium et artem saepe vincit." Cicero, Pro 

 Halbo, c. 20. 



2 Virg. Georg. i. 145. 8 Persius, Prolog. 

 4 QMI, as M. Bouillet remarks, is clearly a mistake for qua. 



* Much more remarkable than the return of the bees to their hive is the appearance 

 of mathematical knowledge shown in the construction of their cells. In every case of 

 instinct, the impulse in obedience to which the instinctive act is performed is a matter 

 at the nature of which we can only guess ; but the case just mentioned has a diffl - 

 culty of its own. The bees may be supposed to know when they have reached their 

 hive ; but how do they perceive that the cell has acquired its just proportions ? Several 

 attempts have been made to explain away this especial difficulty ; but those which I 

 am acquainted with appear to be quite unsatisfactory. It is worthy of remark that 

 the degree of accuracy with which the cells are constructed has been exaggerated ; 

 one writer after another having repeated, on the supposed authority of Maraldi, what 

 Maraldi never said. According to his observations the angles of the terminal rhomb 

 are about 108 and 72. He does not attempt to determine them more precisely, 

 although he has generally been supposed to do so. It has been recently stated that 

 the mathematical problem which the cells of bees suggest was first correctly solved by 

 Lord Brougham in the notes to his edition of Paley's Natural Theology ; but this 

 statement is, it need scarcely be said, erroneous. 



6 This statement is probably taken from Plutarch, De Solertid Animalium. The sup- 

 posed grains of corn are no doubt the nymphse. Huber repeatedly observed ants in the 

 act of tearing the integument in which the young ant was enclosed, in order to facili- 

 tate its exit. This practice is, it may be presumed, the origin of the notion mentioned 

 in the text. 



